China Set to Reject HSBC's Ping An Sale

By

Lingling Wei,

Dinny McMahon And

Alison Tudor

Updated Jan. 9, 2013 12:32 p.m. ET

When HSBC Holdings PLC said last year it would sell its stake in a Chinese insurer for $9.39 billion—a deal regulators now are poised to block—the big surprise was the buyer, a Thai tycoon who made his fortune selling chickens.

While there is no dispute that 73-year-old Dhanin Chearavanont is rich, his company turned to China Development Bank, a government-run lender, to fund the deal. HSBC said in December, when the deal was...